


Dark Room Law

by LilaLila



Category: Die Stadt der Träumenden Bücher | The City of Dreaming Books - Walter Moers, Zamonien | Zamonia - Walter Moers
Genre: (Apparently it IS getting released! At some point.), (so really what's changed), Angst, Hilde being a sad and lonely idiot, Introspection, M/M, One Shot, Waiting for Castle I write fics, post-City pre-Labyrinth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-06
Updated: 2020-08-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:40:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25739719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LilaLila/pseuds/LilaLila
Summary: Sometimes, as I enter a dark room at night, I stand on the doorstep a while. I don't go fumbling in my pockets for matches, searching around for a candle or retreating into the corridor to hatch a torch off the wall. Feeling disquieted by the darkness like any sane person would be. No, there are times when I simply wait.Basically, Hilde being a mess and missing the Shadow King. Like Labyrinth, but much fewer words. And not canon.
Relationships: (if you squint it could be just friendship), Homunkoloss | Homuncolossus/Hildegunst von Mythenmetz | Optimus Yarnspinner
Comments: 3
Kudos: 5





	Dark Room Law

Sometimes, as I enter a dark room at night, I stand on the doorstep a while. I don't go fumbling in my pockets for matches, searching around for a candle or retreating into the corridor to hatch a torch off the wall. Feeling disquieted by the darkness like any sane person would be. No, there are times when I simply wait. 

After a while, shapes begin to form in my sight. The bookcases loom so ominously over white walls and the lighter tiles on my Clavichorgan stand out so clearly in the dark. As your eyes get adjusted, the blackness turns into things suggestive and recognizable, and anyone with a decent imagination naturally starts seeing them as monsters. 

You know that feeling, don't you, dear readers? You’re just getting ready to sleep, when your mind decides to play a little trick on you, create beings where there is furniture.  
_I know this is my chair at daytime,_ you say to yourself, _but now it looks just like the witch from that book I was scared of as a child._ You can see in great detail her wrinkled face, her willow wood stick, her mean little eyes, and can almost hear her cackling in a most evil manner. 

Of course, when you turn on the light, everything seems normal again. But the moment you find yourself in the dark again, the delusions are back. Is that a coat hanger or a skeleton? Your closet, or a golem built by alchemists, with no brain and only one mission: to kill anybody that crosses his path?  
_Enough!_ You tell yourself to snap out of it, stop this nonsense. But you can't, not really, can you? No one is a master of their brain at night.

-

I know at least that I am not, and I’ve always been scared of these shadows. Until now.  
Now I enter a dark room, and I stand there. Logically, this should bring back memories of the catacombs, of monstrous beasts and echoing caverns, and send me out immediately, screaming in terror. But it doesn't. The darkness gives me nothing but comfort. 

I’ve been thinking about it, actually: what if they don’t turn into what you are afraid of? What if the shadows become something you _wish_ to see?  
We are, after all, excited for those terrors as children. It sent an exhilarating chill down our spines when we saw them, making us crave more. So why should that change when we grow up? 

If I stand there long enough, you see, something happens. My imagination takes over and I start noticing things that can’t really be there.  
The faintest trace of a fragrance in the air. Not necessarily pleasant, but very familiar and unmistakable amongst all the other smells in the world – a smell of books, decaying books. As if you had entered an old bookstore.  
Sounds. Rustling, like paper. Sometimes one or two crackles, as if a fire was burning in the room. Sometimes a sigh, far away but recognizable, so achingly recognizable even after all these years. 

I stand petrified, entranced by all of these sensations until the feeling inside my chest gets too heavy to bear anymore, and then finally I do sprint out of the room, and don't return until I'm safely equipped with a torch and several boxes of matches. 

-

I never did this before, but then again there are many things I started doing after the great fire that I didn't do before. Many things have changed since I escaped the city, with flames consuming it and stars burning above me. Many things stay in my mind, and are brought back every minute of every day, but never as prominently as when I stand in the dark. 

I know, dear readers, that it is all my imagination. There is no use worrying over my health. Every day I tell myself it’s impossible, just to reassure it. Dead things don't exist. In my mind, maybe, but not in the material world. There are no more ragged pieces of sharp paper, there’s no more crackling laughter, no more dark eyes, sparkling like diamonds or faraway stars. It’s all gone, reduced to ashes. Gone, like he is, too. 

In daylight, that is. It is a different story at night. For even as I stand in the doorway, hearing rustling that almost sounds like words, hearing flames crackling in underground chambers and smelling, distinctly smelling old paper and glue and leather and _books_ – even then I know I'm alone in the room, surrounded just by ordinary objects. But I can't see anything, and my mind is doing wonders. Just for a few moments, the shadows transform exactly into what I want them to turn into. And for those few moments, I am not alone. 

**Author's Note:**

> Hello wanderer! I don't know how you stumbled into the Zamonia part of AO3, but it's great to see you here. I hope you enjoyed this little story. :)
> 
> This is actually the first time I've posted on this site! I'm rather nervous. But a fic on my favourite book, and a pairing I've loved since forever, seemed like the perfect place to start. They're so lovely and until Castle comes out, I guess I'll just live by on fanfics.  
> In any case, thanks for reading, and cheers! <3


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